Futurama (Hulu)

I don't know. Parts of it I really liked but some of it was sour as hell.

I felt the episode went TOO far in portraying Leela as a lonely loser at the beginning. It was mean. The episode picks up a bit at book club with her making real friends. Then Phoebe dies and it's cruel again. Then it turns out Phoebe was a robot (and Chelsea), and I feel less bad, but also a little jerked around. Then the women all kill her and I feel uneasy. The best that can be said for the end of the episode is Leela seemed to have kept her friends. The season has been doing wrong by Leela, and if you want to argue this episode did too, yeah, but that's nice.

I laughed at Hermes being excited at the atmosphere at the concert being pre-danked. I took pleasant note of it because it was literally the first time I laughed this season.

I like that the men had a real book club, and that Fry read the wrong passage at the funeral while the right one was under his nose earlier in the episode.

I'll tell you what bothers me. Chelsea's evil laugh as the computer turns itself on after Leela leaves the room. It bothers me because it doesn't make sense with that specific ending, and misleads the viewer about both her intentions and what is going on. It's bad writing, is what it is.

I won't lie. Out of the five episodes this year, this was the best so far. And yet Futurama used to be a lot more to me than "Mildly enjoyable". But the truth is the past four were so bad I didn't mind this so much. I mention all the time I'm not picky. But I don't like the fact that the show being so bad this year has lowered my expectations. Lowered expectations lead to lower standards. And that's not good. 3 stars.

Pretty bad.

Also should point out that I didn't laugh once. That's probably even more concerning than the shady story. 1 1/2 stars.

I was enjoying the episode, but I kept reminding myself as it was going that not a single episode this season has had a good ending. And yes, that turned out to be the actual problem.

The 2001 opening was genius.

On the one hand, having Kyle MacLachlan cameo is perfect for the coffee episode (although I also would have accepted Anthony Stewart Head). But I was shocked how off-model his design is. I, Matt Zimmer, a known shitty artist, can draw a better looking Kyle MacLachlan than this big budget TV show did. Usually the Groening designs work with celebrities. My gut feeling is they simply didn't even try here.

I laughed at the bit where Hermes wonders if they should go, and the Professor sarcastically says he wants to wait until he's older. Goddammit, Farnsworth isn't given that kind of wry commentary and quips anymore. And he wasn't prone to getting a ton of that back in the show's prime either, so I appreciate that moment's realness even more.

The management strike was a funny idea, but went nowhere because this show and this episode are always all over the map.

Which is the main problem of both the episode and the ending. It can't decide what it's about. Which means I'm less invested in it than I should be. It was an acceptable episode that the shitty ending simply made unacceptable. That's frustrating. 3 stars.

The Orphanarium stuff on the show is always SO fucking cruel. I tolerated it until now, but it's just too mean, and not funny.

Good on the show for putting up Bart Simpson as an example of a character that is not cute (when Zapp looks into a mirror at his similar design he is also put-off). But I noticed the Professor didn't put up MAGGIE Simpson. Because she actually IS cute.

I'm questioning whether the quality of the show has indeed dipped more than previous seasons, or if I've simply outgrown it. The Orphanarium stuff hints at the latter. The show used to do similar jokes back in the day, but they only hit me wrong now. I suspect I have grown in the future while Futurama has not. 2 stars.

I was super impressed at how Levar Burton and Neil DeGrasse Tyson were used in the wraparounds, but honestly, these segments sucked ass. I appreciated Tyson's bit at the end of the final one, but outside of that one thing, every single segment was unfunny and stupid. Why are they parodying this specific thing anyways? It makes NO fucking sense.

Futurama always gives a Star Trek actor playing themselves good shit to do. Burton carried on that tradition. But it's a problem if every part of the episode NOT involving him and Tyson sucks donkey balls. The show should NOT be this bad. Ever.

This show has stopped being a parody of kids mysteries. At this point it has become a parody of itself. 1 1/2 stars.

It was both a good episode, and good sci-fi. The ending was a little disappointing, but it was also very sweet.

The show can clearly make a good episode if they put their mind to it. Will they bother next season? Let's find out. 4 1/2 stars.